Friday, 20 June 2014

Silence as light

This
morning in the bath I was thinking more about seeds of peace and war, about
simplicity and travelling light. The bath is a good place to think, and our
bathroom is white and full of sunshine, which brings clarity and good thoughts.
Illumination.

I
like to pray in the bath. So I was praying about the longing to walk lighter
and lighter, and told my Lord I wanted to be as light and see-through in my
being as a lace-wing, and that made Him laugh. I have always been rather hefty.

My
thoughts moved on to consider silence. I love silence. Though I live in a
houseful of people – and always have done – I spend much time in solitude and
silence. If I have a favourite saint, I think it is St Joseph. In the gospel
record he is entirely silent – never says a thing – but practical, nurturing,
kind; in his silence is no condemnation, rejection or judgement. The gospel
writers offer, in their portrait of St Joseph, an icon of the Silence that
fosters the living Word – the Silence with which the Word is at home; the Silence
that nurtures the Word as it grows to maturity. With kind Silence the Word grows
in grace and truth.

And
as I swam through these thoughts, something pointed out to me a reality I had
never noticed. I was holding in the Light some events – words – that had hurt
me. They had got stuck in my soul like splinters and I couldn’t get them out.
When that happens, usually I talk about them. But the Light said “Sssh”, so
this time I didn’t. Still they were sharp and stuck into me and didn’t fade.

And
then it pointed out to me, silence keeps emotions in a non-material state. If I
had discussed these things that hurt me, relational baggage would have evolved.
Silence allowed them to dissolve in peace. It dawned on me that just as
material possessions hold the seeds of war – become sources of contention – so
also contention materializes emotion into baggage, if you see what I mean.
Therefore silence is an essential component of simplicity. It preserves
emotional, relational simplicity. Silence facilitates travelling emotionally
and relationally light.

I
am not recommending that a person who has been abused keeps it a secret, or
that friends freeze each other out by refusing to talk things through. There is
a healthy place for telling one’s story and being honest with one another.

What
I mean is cultivating an interior open luminous spaciousness in which events
and experiences can be dissolved of their heaviness by the joy of inner light.

11 comments:

...silence allows them to dissolve in peace... living with pain, sometimes becomes the norm. But so does rehashing old hurts. Angry words tend to leave noise even after they are said. Silence dissolves them.

Sometimes, when people have psychological or emotional issues about something - hangups, obsessions, concerns - they are described as having 'baggage'. Occasionally one will hear someone say they don't want to marry someone with 'baggage', meaning unresolved emotional tensions and entanglements from their past.This 'baggage', though invisible, is something that certainly encumbers people, weighs them down; they trip over it continually. It gets in the way and interferes with their freedom.'Baggage' can accumulate through contention; when a couple is at war over many years and then their parting is bitter and acrimonious, they are often left with 'baggage'; stuff they haven't dealt with that continues to burden them.Silence that is truly quiet (not loud, accusing, hostile silence!) allows simplicity to persist. When, instead of arguing and criticising, instead of picking a fight or pointing out a fault, we allow what irritates and annoys us to sink into silence and dissolve or disperse, we stop it forming, hardening, materialising into 'baggage'. That's what I meant. Though it is about psychological realities rather than physical possessions, I was struck by the interesting similarity. How baggage (in the sense of actual material belongings) creates contention, and contention creates baggage (of the psychological variety). xx

That is beautiful. Could it also be loving enough to let the silence dissolve the pain or hurt. By loving I mean both self or the other person. When you realise that to speak it out would cause more pain or contention. I very much like you thoughts here Pen and I can picture Jesus reaching down from the cross and in silence saying " I'll take that, you have no need of it. '' and you quietly and silently let it go, allowing that space to be filled with peace.Blessings Gail

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An Inspiration

‘Let us pass through your country. We will stay on the main road; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left. Sell us food to eat and water to drink for their price in silver. Only let us pass through on foot until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.’

(Deuteronomy 2.27-28, 29b NIV UK)

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Pen

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